Left ventricular systolic and diastolic function by echocardiogram in pseudoxanthoma elasticum.

Pseudoxanthoma elasticum is an inherited systemic disease of connective tissue with possible cardiac involvement. Nineteen patients with pseudoxanthoma elasticum without a history of cardiac disease were investigated by echocardiography using standard measurements and tissue Doppler imaging. Systolic function was normal, but diastolic parameters were abnormal in 7 patients. Explanations for these abnormalities could be silent myocardial ischemia due to early coronary involvement and/or the direct consequences of ultrastructural defects of the elastic tissue of the heart.